XIAMEN, China – South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma arrived in east China’s Xiamen City on Saturday morning, to attend meetings of the 9th BRICS Summit scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday.

Leaders of other BRICS countries will also arrive in Xiamen for the summit. The theme of this year’s summit is Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future.

READ: BRICS criticised for lack of impact 

China will host the largest ever BRICS Business Forum from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning. President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the business forum and deliver a keynote speech.

On the sidelines, the Dialog between Emerging Market Economies and Developing Countries will be held under the theme of Promoting Mutually Beneficial Cooperation for Common Development.

Reuters

Cape Town – It was anything but smooth sailing for the Marine Spatial Planning Bill on Wednesday when members of Parliament came to consult the fishing community of Saldanha, GroundUp reported. 

Members of Parliament’s portfolio committee on environmental affairs came to consult coastal communities along the West Coast on the bill.

The bill is intended to give effect to government’s Operation Phakisa and in particular the focus on the economic potential of the seas. The public participation process is scheduled to conclude in Parliament on Friday.

The bill, Department of Environmental Affairs director Gcobani Popose told community members, would enable an integrated system to guide the development, implementation and monitoring of Marine Spatial Management Plans in the country.

This would be better than the “silo” approach and would reduce conflict over the use of resources, and help to ensure these resources are used sustainably and for development.

In his State of the Nation address in 2014 President Jacob Zuma said of Operation Phakisa that South Africa’s oceans had the potential to contribute up to R177bn to the economy by 2033 compared to R54bn in 2010.

But Saldanha community members, mostly small scale fishermen, wanted to know who would benefit from unlocking economic opportunities.

‘Causing more trouble than solutions’

A fisherman from St Helena Bay, Gerald Cloete, appealed to lawmakers to take into account small scale fishers’ contribution to the formal economy.

He said Operation Phakisa was aimed at utilising the economic potential of the ocean. But, he said, “should we not start by first giving proper recognition to these fishermen and their contribution to the existing economy?”

“I am not saying Operation Phakisa will be a stillborn baby, I am not saying it will fail, but my problem is that we first need to recognise the existing economy and small scale fishers are part of that existing economy.”

Popose stressed that the bill would not replace existing legislation in departments such as Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Mineral resources and Environmental Affairs (as steering department), but would allow for better coordination of planning.

This means policies like the controversial fishing quotas and other regulations which are causing an outcry from fishing communities will mainly remain intact – something that Cloete sees as a concern.

“We are sitting with a department [DAFF] causing more trouble for our communities than providing solutions,” said Cloete. He referred to the Marine Protected Areas that limit traditional small scale fishing.

“Some of these are more than 100 years old and this bill highlights the importance of protecting marine resources, but how can we talk about protecting marine resources and then let those like us dependent on them to make a living, languish in poverty?” he asked, to cheers from the audience.

“So I’m asking you, let us start at the beginning and first recognise small scale fishing.”

“There is just no protection from DAFF and government should at least give us some kind of 20% or 30% usage of the Marine Protected Areas.”

‘Robbed of our daily bread’

Another local fisherman, Christo Koopman, was much more emotional in his plea to lawmakers.

“Wamee is die regering nou wee deu’meka” (What is government up to now?).

He pointed through the window to the bay, claiming the community was already feeling the impact of government’s Industrial Development Zone, which he said had undermined the whole fishing industry in Saldanha.

The Saldanha Bay IDZ, according to its website, is designed to be “a world-class, internationally recognised and respected South African marine engineering hub focused on the international oil and gas sector” which offers surrounding communities an opportunity to “transform their own landscapes of possibility”.

But Cloete said what he saw was “gas pipes, and the sea, the traditional fishermen’s primary source of income, turned into an industrial site”.

“We are robbed of our daily bread whilst the IDZ only seems to benefit some people,” Cloete told MPs.

Christian Adams, secretary of Coastal Links, also raised concerns that the bill “seeks to further dispossess small scale fishers and small scale fishing communities of either the fishing grounds they’ve historically fished in or the land adjacent to those fishing grounds”.

“You come here with a presentation telling us that one economy is more important than the other. So what you mean is that if our government decides that the gas and the oil economy is more important than the fishing economy — and we are already seeing this happening outside here — that the fishing economy will cease to exist. That is what this bill is telling me.”

“Just look at the drilling here in the bay for gas and oil by the likes of BHP Billiton. Where is that company based? Does this bill seek to enhance the economic opportunities for SA citizens or is it to benefit multinational companies like BHP, or Arcelor Mittal, the Guptas and them?” Adams asked to approval from fellow fishermen.

‘A huge impact’

He then took a swipe at the public participation process.

“The constitution demands that you consult with the public and now that you have, will it actually be taken into consideration? I don’t think so because we have made hundreds of submissions before Parliament,” Adams said waving papers in the air.

“We have written hundreds of thousands of words of public comments and nowhere do we see any movement happening for the betterment of the lives of small scale fishers.”

Adams told MPs small scale fishing communities had been fighting for a small scale fisheries policy since 2007.

He said Operation Phakisa would create 22 more Marine Protected Areas.

“So where are we going to fish? You come, you consult, you tick your box, you leave and it doesn’t matter because we don’t see you again. Yet the decisions you make have a huge impact,” said Adams.

Some of the community members present urged government not to take Phakisa (which in Sesotho means Hurry Up) so literally.

DA Councillor Andre Kruger reminded MPs that good balanced decisions usually took time.

“I support the use of the ocean economy to create jobs, but if we hurry we get the situation we have now. Let us make balanced decisions that are best for the economy, the environment and society,” he urged.

Cape Town – It is essential that the National Congress (ANC) elect a female president at its elective conference in December, regardless of who that woman might be, presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday evening.  

Sisulu said “it’s a must” because a female president reflects the desired change in the country. 

“Whether it is Nkosazana [Dlamini-Zuma], whether it is comrade Baleka [Mbete] or anybody… I think it is time now that a woman took the lead,” she said. 

Sisulu, 63, was delivering the key note address at a Sasco organised Women’s Day event at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)’s Bellville campus. 

The lecture hall was filled to capacity.

Sisulu said no man should present himself as an ANC member if he is accused of gender based violence, “irrespective if he is a deputy minister of state”.

“Almost subconsciously men will always hold onto power to ensure that their dominance remains,” she said to loud applause from the crowd.

“Men who abuse women either emotionally or physically are extremely insecure.”

Sisulu said she is in discussions with lawyers to make sure that the minimum sentence for a rapist is twenty years in prison without parole.

She said she “accepted the invitation” to stand for president of the ANC, because she wants to be “counted amongst those who returned the true values of the ANC”.

“I became very concerned, like most people, that our fortunes were not as good as they were in the past, that our popularity was waning, that something has gone wrong in something we ourselves were doing and I needed to be part of the change to see change come about,” she said. 

Her campaign promises include free education and an overview of all government policies to ensure they stimulate job growth.  

 “We must revive the ANC values, it’s a must,” she said at the end of her address. 

PORT ELIZABETH – The United Democratic Movement (UDM) lodged an urgent application in the Port Elizabeth High Court to have the motion of no confidence vote against ousted deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani set aside.

Bobani was ousted as deputy mayor in a vote was passed while opposition parties were leaving the council chambers.

UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the application sought to prevent the municipality from implementing the August 24 decision and to have Bobani reinstated.

“I trust that the High Court will separate fact from fiction and that the honourable court will see through the [Democratic Alliance] DA’s politicking and identify the DA’s smear campaign against Bobani and the UDM,” he said.

“The DA, claiming good governance at every turn, should have known better than to have proceeded with the motion; should know better than to defend the illicit decision to remove the deputy executive mayor.”

Bobani filed the papers on Thursday afternoon and told the media that he was not in a position to comment on the application and referred questions to Holomisa.

The application lists 132 respondents, including all councillors of the municipality, as well as the speaker of the municipality, the city manager, and all political parties that have representation in Mandela Bay.

READ: UDM heads to court over Bobani axing

Holomisa said the mechanics of the introduction and acceptance of, and the voting on, and the decision of Council to pass a motion of no confidence in Bobani was unconstitutional and unlawful from the outset and should be set aside.

“What the DA claims, and what the DA does; what the DA promises, and what the DA delivers, remain alarmingly divergent,” he said. 

Holomisa said there was no factual or legal grounds for the removal of Bobani who had not been formally accused of any wrongdoing; had not been granted any opportunity to defend himself on the alleged accusations of wrongdoing.

Mayor Athol Trollip said he had not yet seen the papers but said the municipality would oppose the application.

“We know why we voted in a vote of no confidence against councillor Bobani. He has shown no commitment to our co-governance agreement,” he said.

“As far as we are concerned, he is the former deputy mayor and that is that.”

Respondents have until 8 September 8 to file answering affidavits, while the UDM’s legal counsel will file responding papers by the 14th and the provisional court date set down is 19 September.

African News Agency

Durban – Former Glenwood High School headmaster Trevor Kershaw, who is accused of defrauding the school out of more than R5m, has failed to convince a magistrate that he will not get a fair trial.

On Wednesday, Durban Specialised Commercial Court Magistrate Judy Naidoo ruled that the charge sheet and further particulars supplied by the State were sufficient for Kershaw to know the nature of the 1 624 counts against him and the evidence that the State would use against him.

The charges he faces involve alleged reimbursements he made to himself in cash or through electronic transfers using “home-made” invoices.

Kershaw, through his legal team, attorney Carl van der Merwe and advocate Gideon Scheltema, SC, launched the challenge against the charge sheet on the day the trial was to begin.

They argued that they had been swamped with thousands of documents in electronic form which they could not link to specific charges.

They also sought to exclude evidence of key witnesses, including forensic auditor Eckhard Volker, accusing him of being impartial.

Delaying tactic

But prosecutor Wendy O’Brien labelled the application as a delaying tactic “designed to collapse and avoid the trial”.

She said “the truth” was that the defence never intended to be ready for trial – nor in proceeding with it at all – and if they could exclude Volker’s report “they would have achieved their purpose”.

In her ruling, Naidoo said every accused had the right to a fair trial and to be given sufficient information in order to prepare a defence.

She said in this matter, it was clear that the charges involved several acts of misrepresentation over a long period of time and that there was no confusion or vagueness about this.

“He should know the case he had to meet.

“When there are a multiplicity of charges, there will be voluminous documentation….this is not the first case of this nature in a court of law.”

‘Trial getting nowhere’

She noted that Kershaw had been given the final charge sheet more than a year ago and the defence had indicated in October last year that they would be ready for trial this month.

“They have had sufficient time to peruse all the documents.

“It is also not unusual in these matters to use a forensic analysis when often the police don’t have the expertise or the manpower.”

Scheltema said they would now take the ruling on review to the High Court, which could take many more months.

“This trial is getting nowhere,” Naidoo said, postponing the matter until October for an update on progress and, possibly, another pre-trial application.

Kershaw, 56, was the principal of the school from 2000 until December 2015.

He was arrested in April last year.